1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system including a portable device that consists of a base for receiving dental images taken with an X-ray sensor.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Equipment used for taking dental images usually includes a PC connected to a small electronic device, generally of the size of a cellular phone, which is used as an interface which is dedicated to supplying the desired clock signals to the sensor, and which is of the electrical charge transfer (CCD) type, to recover these charges and digitize the quantity as image data-defining image elements (pixels). The base may thus be placed near the patient and connected to the CCD sensor by means of a relatively short cord, which limits the electronic noise that disturbs the electronic signal of the charges.
However, the ergonomics of the equipment still leaves something to be desired. In fact, the practitioner must, on the one hand, locate the sensor at a precise point in the mouth of the patient and, on the other hand, control the equipment, i.e. he must activate the X-ray source and manage the images that are taken; in other words, he must examine them, and delete, in real time, those of insufficient quality, so that he may take another one. He must also file them.
In particular, in order to check the quality of the image that has just been taken, the practitioner must temporarily leave the base and move to the PC in order to activate a display program therein. He must also select the last image received by the PC, so that he may check its quality.
Filing involves opening the patient's electronic file in the PC and transferring to it each new image taken, by associating service information to it which specifies the position of the tooth in the jaw and the date the image is taken.
These tasks—examination and filing of the images thus obtained—consequently represent a large amount of work for the practitioner.
The object of the present invention is to provide a solution that is less burdensome to the practitioner, for addressing at least one of the above problems, by facilitating the filing process and the examination of the quality of the images taken.